Air pollution-- the 5th leading cause of death in India claimed 35,000 lives in the past decade

Air quality in India has been under the scanner for a long time. Delhi being labelled as one of the most polluted cities in the world, it's PM 2.5 levels are ten times higher than the standards claimed a recent WHO report. Irrespective of this report, the government had maintained that there was no conclusive data that present the number of deaths due to respiratory illnesses and air pollution. However, for the first time, the government has revealed that more than 35,000 people had died due to acute respiratory infections (ARI) across India in the past 10 years or so, according to the Times of India.

In the Parliament, the environment ministry also informed that 2.6 crore cases were reported every year. The ministry shared statistics related to ARI from 2006-2015 and listed measures taken to curb the problem. The data reveals that maximum number of ARI related deaths and high number of cases are reported from West Bengal followed by Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi

Environment and Forest Minister, Prakash Javdekar said that air pollution is an aggravating factor for respiratory and cardiac ailments. He also informed that asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, etc. are the diseases caused by exposure to increasing air pollution.

However, it's not just respiratory illnesses, various recent studies have linked air pollution to different diseases. A study conducted at the Edinburgh University and published in the BMJ linked short-term exposure of air pollution to stroke-related hospital admissions and deaths. The study concluded that both, PM 2.5 and PM 10 were associated with hospital admissions or deaths due to stroke, by 1.1 percent and 0.3 percent per 10 Aug/m3 increment, respectively. Another study conducted at the John Hopkins and Harvard university linked the increasing exposure to air pollution to anxiety.

Air pollution also increases the risk of strokes and heart disease, claimed a recent research. It said that for every 2 g/m rise in air pollution, the risk of heart disease and strokes increases. The study found that people who live on major roadways suffer from cerebral shrinking that ages their brain by a year and increases the risk of dementia.

Study published in the journal Environmental Research claimed that mother's exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and the child's exposure during the first two years of life increases the child's risk of suffering from autism spectrum disorders. The researchers found that children who fell into higher exposure groups are 1.5 times likely to suffer from ASD. Read : Air pollution alters genes, can lower children s IQ by up to 10 points.

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